8gb of ram worth it?

[draelas]

currently i have 4gb. specs:

mobo: M4A785T-M

cpu: Phenom II 3.1ghz x4

ram: 4gb ddr3 1333mhz

vid: nvidia gtx560ti

would going up to 8gb be a noticeable difference? i mostly do gaming, with some minor/amateur video editing from my gopro, mostly with windows movie maker.

[Elliot B.]

currently i have 4gb. specs:

mobo: M4A785T-M

cpu: Phenom II 3.1ghz x4

ram: 4gb ddr3 1333mhz

vid: nvidia gtx560ti

would going up to 8gb be a noticeable difference? i mostly do gaming, with some minor/amateur video editing from my gopro, mostly with windows movie maker.

I have a similar system:

Intel Core i5-750

4 GB DDR3-1333

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560

Microsoft Windows 7 (x64)

It's a good question (Y) I also play modern games and do minor/amateur video editing with WLMM.

[DrJohnSmitherson]

I think so. I notice I start to hit my 4gb limit. Pretty easily. Of course as Windows needs more memory it reduces it from other areas so you don't run out if possible. I'd go for it! I wish I had 8gb! If you have high memory consuming start up programs that you NEED, 8gb could easily be worth it.

[user01100011]

i have 16gb of memory and with 12gb you notice no difference, 8gb is the minimum

[Astra.Xtreme]

For how cheap RAM is right now, it's absolutely worth upgrading. You may not see much of a difference between 4GB and 8GB, but you might as well futureproof yourself while it's cheap.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I have an i7 920 with 12GB of ram and when I use VMware I sometimes get up as high as 7GB of ram usage with just 1 VM open. I give each VM about 2 GB of ram. If I edit a 720P movie in Vegas I can get up to about 10GB of ram used. Back when I had only 6gb of ram I hit that limit one time and my computer pretty much locked up and had to wait a few mins for it to unlock, it was sooooooo slow.

[medium_pimpin]

Depends. Do you have a 64-bit OS?

[AJerman]

For how cheap RAM is right now, it's absolutely worth upgrading. You may not see much of a difference between 4GB and 8GB, but you might as well futureproof yourself while it's cheap.

I tend to agree. For how cheap you can get 8GB of RAM, I don't see any reason not to. 4 GB is good for fairly heavy use, but if you're a gamer, it can't hurt to have more. Make sure you're running a 64 bit OS though if you're upgrading to 8 GB or you won't be able to access it.

[Owen W Veteran]

It really depends what you're doing. For just gaming, you don't really need more than 4GB right now. If you're doing VMware or other virtualization stuff, 8GB is definitely needed. If someone tells you that you need "8GB minimum" and you're not doing virtualization stuff, they're probably wrong.

[AJerman]

It really depends what you're doing. For just gaming, you don't really need more than 4GB right now. If you're doing VMware or other virtualization stuff, 8GB is definitely needed. If someone tells you that you need "8GB minimum" and you're not doing virtualization stuff, they're probably wrong.

Keywords being "right now". Current gen games are already hitting 3-4 GB recommendations. By the end of the year they'll probably be over that, so 8 GB isn't a bad idea. When Far Cry 3 comes out, I'd be willing to bet 4-6 GB is recommended.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

3-4GB recommendations are for total system memory of coure, not what the game is using. If i load Crysis 2, or something, my system will use like 2.2GB of my 6GB.

if it's cheap, then why not? tbh, you'll probably notice zero difference.

[rijp]

I used to wonder why someone would actually NEED 8Gb.. It seems like a waste..

Then virtualization, media servers, widgets, and browsers with LOTS of extensions comes along and BAM! 8GB is barely enough.

go for it! If you can afford, yeah you WILL use it..

[Klownicle]

After 4gb, unless your running multiple applications at once there isn't any real benefit. You might see something with 8gb. But 4gb is a healthy amount for todays normal tasks.

I just upgraded to 16gb because I run alot of virtual machines on my computer. But again ram is the most important aspect here, because your processor is only utilized as its needed.

[Dan~]

I got 8gb, but am greedy. also run vm sometimes :)-

[tsupersonic]

It's so cheap, you might as well...I decided to max out my motherboard at 16 GB, even though I was ok with 8 GB of RAM.

[draelas]

ya im using windows 7 x64

i guess i might as well, just looked up my local computer store and i can get another 4gb, for $25. might as well at that price.

[a.mcdear]

8gb of RAM is only 1GB. I would recommend more. ;)

[PGHammer]

After 4gb, unless your running multiple applications at once there isn't any real benefit. You might see something with 8gb. But 4gb is a healthy amount for todays normal tasks.

I just upgraded to 16gb because I run alot of virtual machines on my computer. But again ram is the most important aspect here, because your processor is only utilized as its needed.

Who *doesn't* run multiple applications at once?

Consider the TaskTray (Windows XP and later - Linux has similar indicators in most desktop environments); each represents either an application or at least one process (a typical application, even a thin one, consists of several processes; my rule of thumb for processes, after multiple runs and analysis using Windows' included Task Manager is there are an average of ten processes per application outside of Windows itself). While I also do a reasonable amount of virtualization, I never run more than one VM at a time - however, I often have anywhere from five hundred to seven hundred *processes* running at once - and that is with my VM software of choice (VirtualBox) not even running.

And this is on a Q6600 with just 3 GB of DDR2-800 (which is why I am not only NOT upgrading the RAM- with DDR2 being way too pricey - but why I'm moving to i5-2500K).

If you think small applets don't count, you're deceiving yourself. Small applets and utilities are like sovereign debt - a litle here, a little there, and they add up to where the legislature, voters, and bondholders say "Enough!"

[Gladiatorus]

RAM: You can never have enough.

[Raa]

Unless you do high end stuff (photo, video or sound work), you won't see much of a difference.

[AJerman]

RAM: You can never have enough.

Agreed! This thread got me itching to upgrade, so I added another 128 GB! :laugh:

[Andre S. Veteran]

You know you'd benefit from more ram if you're often hitting 90%+ memory usage in Task Manager. Simple as that really.

[TCA]

go for 8gb this way you won't have to worry about having to buy more if in case you need the extra push if you get into anything else other then what you're doing now...just my opinion, choice is really up to you friend

[chrispinto]

I've got 12Gb, it's a noticeable difference over 4Gb.

[articuno1au]

^ He's clearly a liar.

Look at his description!

"Non-biased Apple Fan" - Please :p